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Fiscal Cliff and Lame Duck Session Will Produce Terrible Policies

Personal Freedom and Prosperity 110: A Predictable and Stable Legal Order

A government with moral and legal authority promulgates written rules and universally, impartially and uniformly enforces the rules, which provides a predictable and stable legal order on which to base economic and personal decisions. The law prevails, not the proclamation or arbitrary decision of a ruler, government bureaucrat, the enforcer (e.g., policeman) or judge.

Fiscal Cliff and Lame Duck Session Will Produce Terrible Policies

In 2011, President Obama and Congress promulgated the “Fiscal Cliff.” On January 1, 2013, tax rates will increase and spending cuts (actually slowing the increases) will be made to military and a variety of domestic programs.

The Fiscal Cliff was intented to be bad policy. It was intended to force the President and Congress to convene after the 2012 election and rescind its legislation. This is a violation of our Constitution and the intention of our 20th Amendment. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Boehner and McConnell (the Conniving Five) have intentionally excluded the American public from knowing and commenting on major policy decisions. In 2010, Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law called a Lame Duck session undemocratic and deplored its use for major legislation.

It is utterly undemocratic for repudiated representatives to legislate in the name of the American people. Worse, the prospect of a lame-duck session encourages sitting politicians to defer big issues till after Election Day and thereby avoid scrutiny by the voters.

Already, these political machinations by the Conniving Five have wrecked havoc on America. The Fiscal Cliff law has and will have an enormous impact on almost every taxpayer, thousands of government employees, hundreds of military contractors and the unemployed.

For over a year, the Conniving Five created economic and political uncertainty. Employers are not hiring when they are unsure of what their tax burden will be and have no idea what the Conniving Five will legislate before January 2013. Governmental bureaucrats are still making up the rules for ObamaCare, and America presently does not have a stable and predictable legal order on which every American can reasonably make personal and economic decisions. This has not only discouraged but retarded economic growth.

Apparently, getting elected and being put into power trumped any interest for good governance.

From now through Christmas, the Conniving Five will negotiate and pander to their special-interest groups. Already, President Obama has met with union leaders and complicit big business CEOs. In government talks, the unions and CEOs are called stakeholders. Tragically, the real stakeholders are We the People, and We are excluded from the negotiations. This is immoral and will inevitably produce incompetent laws and policies.

Whenever President Obama is in a bind, he turns to his celebrity supporters. They prop him up when he’s wavering and help remind everyone how “cool” he is and that he's part of their team. With Obamacare implementation due to begin this fall, our government is bringing in the National Football League and its stars to bolster enrollment in the unpopular program.

President Obama has not been having a very good month. Between the Benghazi hearings, the IRS scandal, the DOJ getting caught snooping into media phone records, and the NLRB smackdown, he really needs his friends. Usually, when Obama needs friends, he would turn to the unions. Too bad they’re not very happy with him lately, either.

Last year, during a recess while Congress was still in session, President Obama appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). While it is Constitutional for a President to make recess appointments during a inter-cession recess, these appointments were made during a intra-session recess. It may sound like a minor detail, but it's not. These appointments to the NRLB, which enforce employee and employer rights, don’t fall under that category. Whoops.

Democracy and Power 101: Government is PowerThe .. essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. —James Madison, speech in the Virginia State Convention of 1829-1830

Who doesn’t love some Memphis soul music? Certainly, no red-blooded American could feel that way. However, in the current economy, we are all being forced to cut back on things that we enjoy. Entertainment expenses are on the chopping block around the country. Concert attendance is down as people are cutting back on non-essentials. It’s not just musical events, either.

Sometimes, in the course of your life, there will be parties to which you are not invited. Are you ok? Shall I fetch the smelling salts? If you’re still reading this, I’ll assume that you’re a reasonable human being...and that you’re not planning on raising your children in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.

Democracy and Power 108: ObfuscationWherever politics intrudes upon economic life, political success is readily attained by saying what people like to hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity. – Hans F. Sennholz

Several of us have blogged about this previously at FreedomWorks, but I simply can't get over how absurd it is that President Obama has nominated Jack Lew for Secretary of the Treasury. (Click here for a list of all Jack Lew articles on the blog.) If you thought Timothy Geithner was bad, you should check out Jack Lew's record.

In this month's State of the Union Address the president put forth a plan to make college tuition more affordable. The proposal was met with praise in most quarters on the left, but surprisingly little attention from the right.